Wednesday, October 23, 2013

I was thrilled to find out on Friday evening that COMPLIANCE won the Golden Leaf for best YA! (Thank goodness for twitter! I thought the awards were Saturday night.)

The award is given out by the New Jersey chapter of the RWA. I wish I'd been at the conference to collect the hardware, but alas. :(

This nomination and win were especially gratifying since COMPLIANCE is the middle book in a trilogy, and it's not exactly a romance... So, I was very pleased that the judges felt that a) it worked as a standalone and b) the romance elements were satisfying. (Worried me in a middle book.)

I had a friend accept the award for me and I'll have to get together with her soon to get my hands on it! I'll post a photo of the award once I see it. :)

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Today I'm revealing not one, but two covers for upcoming books by Sara Hantz. Sara's been an on-line writer pal since -- since forever -- and I'm thrilled that she's got two new books coming out!

In the Blood releases November 5 and Will the Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up? releases May 6, 2014.

In the Blood

For seventeen years Jed Franklin’s life was normal. Then his father was charged with the abuse and murder of four young boys and normal became a nightmare.

His mom’s practically a walking zombie, he’s lost most of his friends, and the press camps out on his lawn. The only things that keep him sane are his little sis; his best friend and dream girl, Summer; and the alcohol he stashes in his room. But after Jed wakes up from a total blackout to discover a local kid has gone missing—a kid he was last seen talking to—he’s forced to face his greatest fear: that he could somehow be responsible.

In a life that’s spiraled out of control, Jed must decide if he chooses his own destiny with Summer by his side or if the violent urges that plagued his father are truly in the blood…

Excerpt

Chapter One

Pedophile: Noun

An adult who is sexually attracted to children.

Scum.

Sleazeball.

Creep.

Loser.

Lowlife.

Asswipe.

Dad.

Chapter Two

Benjamin Franklin. My Dad.

Not that Benjamin Franklin.

That Benjamin Franklin.

Pedophile and murderer.

Freaked out?

Did you even know a bastard like that could lead a regular life?

With a wife and two children. A son and a daughter. No, nor did we. Until it was too late.

Too fucking late.

The numbing shock when he was arrested. The disbelief. The conviction that the police had gotten it wrong. Way wrong. Even in the face of damning evidence, we knew that the truth would come out. That the evidence got switched. That there was a cover up, or something.

Something.

Then the police found locks of hair belonging to each of those dead boys, so well hidden in the little trinket box my dad’s mom gave him on her deathbed.

Abi Saunders might be a kickboxing champion, but when it comes to being the center of attention, she’d rather take a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus any day. So when her trainer convinces her to audition to be the stunt double for hot teen starlet Tilly Watson, Abi is shocked—and a little freaked out—when she gets the job.

Being a stunt double is overwhelming, but once the wig and makeup are on, Abi feels like a different person. Tilly Watson, to be exact. And when Tilly’s gorgeous boyfriend, Jon, mistakes Abi for the real star, Abi's completely smitten. In fact, she’s so in love with her new life, it isn’t long before she doesn’t have time for her old one.

But when the cameras are turned off, will she discover running with the Hollywood A-list isn’t quite the glamorous existence she thought it was?

My cheeks are crimson and I want to die. I know he’s the director and has the right to holler, but doesn’t he understand that the louder he is the worse I am? We must have gone over this move fifty times and I still can’t get it. And I know, without even looking, the other guys have lost it with me. It’s easy for them but I’m a kick-boxer, not a freakin’ acrobat.

And now Zak’s saying something to one of the crew. Let’s all guess what it is: get rid of the silly girl. We couldn’t get anyone more incompetent if we tried. In fact a monkey could do better.

Well, he’s right, a monkey could do better. Then again, a monkey wouldn’t need to wear a harness that cuts badly into its thighs so it can fly across the room. We’re doing wire work, the one thing I was looking forward to. Ha. What a laugh that is.

At least we’re not filming yet. This is just the rehearsal or, as they say, ‘prepping’. We’re in one of the studios that’s full of equipment with pulleys and wires. I’ve no idea how it all works, except that it keeps me up in the air. I thought we’d be doing this outside but it seems they film wire work stuff indoors against a big screen, and then edit to make it look like it’s outside by dropping in a background. As Mom would say: “the wonders of modern science”.

What I’m doing is really basic stuff, nothing like the things they did on the Matrix. Which it wouldn’t be, obviously. I remember reading that those actors had months and months of kung fu training even though most of the stunts were done by stunt men.

Right. This is it. I’m going to really concentrate. I will not be beaten. I can do this. It’s not hard.

I’m a graceful fairy,

I’m a graceful fairy,

I’m a graceful fairy.

“Ready,” I call, for the first time feeling confident of success.

The technician holds up his thumb so I know we’re about to go. I take a deep breath, point my toes, bring my legs together and hold out my arms at a forty-five degree angle. So far, so good. I swallow hard as I begin to move.

Sara Hantz originally comes from the UK and is one of four children, having three younger brothers. Although she was an avid reader from a very early age, she didn’t get the writing bug until much later in life, though English was always one of her stronger subjects. She’s an avid sun chaser and now lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Australia (via 10 years in New Zealand). She writes young adult fiction and her debut book The Second Virginity of Suzy Green was published by Flux Books and made the prestigious list ‘New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age’. Sara has a PhD in Education and lectured for many years before deciding to devote more time to her writing and working in the family hospitality business. She has two grown-up children and w hen not writing, working or online with her friends, she spends more time than most people she knows watching TV - in fact if TV watching was an Olympic sport she'd win gold.

Monday, July 22, 2013

I returned from the RWA National conference last night. I'll likely post more about the conference later, but I just had a thought I wanted to get down...

And it's not a particularly original thought, it might even be cliché, but I am struck this morning about how much a positive attitude can affect one's experiences and enjoyment of life.

I booked a later-in-the-day flight yesterday, thinking I'd do some sightseeing in Atlanta, but a longer-than-planned breakfast, and a long-as-usual to-do list kept me in the hotel until I had to head to the airport.

Then I went to the airport early, because I spotted someone I knew heading out, and didn't want to get stuck paying a full cab fare myself.

Here are the things I didn't know when I decided to head to the airport early:

- the international terminal in Atlanta is a long way away from the domestic one. (Seriously? Are they in the same city?) So, my taxi fare was pretty much what I would have paid on my own, even though I split the fare to the domestic terminal 3 ways.

- after getting to the airport early, my flight boarded 2 1/2 hours late, then sat on the tarmac for another hour and 45 minutes before we even got into the queue on a runway. We landed 4 1/2 hours late. At least.

Let's just say that it was a loooong trip home.

But I was grinning nearly the entire time and woke in a great mood this morning.

Why do you ask?

Well, all the misfortunes listed above, led to some interesting and fun consequences.

First, the cabbie, with whom I got an extra 15 minutes after dropping the other women at the domestic terminal, turned out to be an interesting man, originally from South Sudan who likes books and asked for my card and seemed genuinely interested. Plus, he was nice to talk to after I got past my initial reaction that he was ripping me off when he said it would cost another $13 to go from one terminal to the other. After the trip, I realized why...

Second, in the airport, I got to hang with five local writers, only one of whom I knew well before. And now I feel like I have four new friends. We had some huge belly laughs. It's amazing how punchy I get on almost no sleep and a 4 hour wait in an airport. Plus we got to watch a fireworks-show-of-a-thunderstorm that was one of the reasons our flight was delayed. Front row seats from inside a wall-to-ceiling glass room.

Then, on the flight, I was seated way at the back (within sniff distance of the stinkiest airport toilet ever) and next to a very chatty young woman.

Now, with the wrong attitude, that might have annoyed me. But I set my book aside and chatted back. And she was pretty amazing. Without going into details, she was highly inspiring in what she's gone through and accomplished in her (I'm guessing) 20 or 21 years, and she also reminded me of how much I've accomplished, at a time when I've been thinking the opposite. (It's easy to come back from conference thinking you aren't successful enough, or good enough, or working hard enough, or that the odds are so stacked against all authors that most of us are delusional in thinking we can have a career.)

Reflecting this morning, I thought, hmmm... somewhere in a parallel universe, another Maureen would have fought with that cabbie over the fare, sat stewing on her own at the airport trying to get work done, and ignored the chatty girl on the plane. In a parallel universe, another Maureen would have been angry and frustrated about the delay and loooong trip home after a tiring week, and translated her fatigue into grumpiness instead of giddiness.

Glad I ended up in the right parallel universe yesterday. And it was a great reminder that, most of the time, we have a choice of which universe to live in.

All about the attitude.

How about you? Any time you've turned bad luck into a fun day?

Plus, if you love romance, or more importantly if you tend to dismiss it as trash or "mommy porn" you should read this post by the fabulous Molly O'Keefe.

Friday, July 12, 2013

I dropped by a #litchat twitter chat a few days ago and the topic was writer's block.

Opinions on this topic vary wildly. But I've chosen to believe that:

a) it doesn't exist, you just need to push through, or
b) if it truly does sink in for you, it might be clinical depression and you should see your doctor.

Writing is hard. If it were easy to finish a novel, everyone would do it.

If it were easy to revise a lousy or mediocre novel to make it a good or exciting novel, more of the people who complete the first step (already very few), would do the second and there wouldn't be as many badly written self-published books out there. I know there are great self-published books out there, before someone yells at me. :) I know that these days self-publishing is a choice, not a last resort. But let's face it, an awful lot of the stuff out there, especially by writers who were never previously published traditionally, is crap. But back to writer's block.

Prolific and wildly successful romance author Nora Roberts has been quoted as saying (I'm paraphrasing): There's no such thing as writer's block, just lazy writers. She also says something like: You can't fix a blank page.

And I've taken those two quotes to heart on the days when the writing isn't going well.

I've also discovered that, for me, writing can cure writers block. If I'm hating my work, or it seems all wrong or I just can't think of a good plot twist or a clever way to say what I want to say, I just start typing (or writing in a notebook) about how frustrated I am, or about why I think the book's not working, or what might work, or ridiculous ideas of things I know won't work--and almost always (I can't think of a time that this hasn't worked) by the time I'm done ranting on the page, I start back into the work again because I've thought of a solution to the problem I'm having or I start to realize how to fix it. (That is one long sentence. Is there a prize for that?)

Or somedays, if the right words aren't coming, but I know what's going to happen, I'll just give myself permission to write it badly. Or write detailed outlines of the scenes instead of the actual scenes. Or put in things like "Glory does something that shows she's happy", instead of stopping to think of the absolute perfect and specific thing for my character to do. That works too. At least it keeps me moving forward to a point where my momentum and ability to form words into nice sentences might come back to me. I can fix it later. (You can't fix a blank page.)

I think the important thing is to keep moving. To treat writing as a job, even if you've never been paid for it, or even if you've been published but also need a day job, or a spouse's income, to make ends meet (as 99% of us do).

And today I stumbled on this Stephen King quote.

And this really spoke to me, too. Our best work, no matter what style of writer we are, or which genre the industry lumps our work in to, comes from deep inside us and sometimes hurts coming out. But the stuff that hurts, the stuff that's hard, is also usually our best work.

I also realize that most of these great quotes about not being too precious about your work, and being professional, and just getting it done, come from so-called genre fiction authors, who are often looked down upon by writers deemed more literary.

Well, okay. I get that it might take longer to write a truly great literary novel. I get that each scene might take more time and more revision might be required when you're writing a book where the words count more than the story. (I don't know if I actually believe this. Story is hard too. Great characters are hard too. Writing emotion is hard too... But whatever. I'm conceding for a moment that literary fiction might take longer.)

And my point is, no matter what you're writing, ultimately it comes down to "butt in chair, hands on keyboard" at some point.

I think too many creative people use the word muse as an excuse.

NB. This doesn't mean I don't get to stare out the window, or play Bejeweled and call it work. Sometimes we need that, too. To let the subconscious do it's thing. Okay.
Just don't whine and call it writer's block.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Yesterday was Father's Day, but my dad was on a train (still is) on the way back from Saskatchewan, and so all I could do was call him. I had plans with my brother and his family, but one of the kids had a fever, so those plans fell through.

My first instinct was to get some work done. So many things to do... But then I thought, "You deserve a day off!"

So I gave myself one, and I went to the movies.

And I saw 3. :) It almost felt like film fest time.

First stop: This is the End.

I loved this movie. I thought I might be making a mistake going to a film like this at noon, and not under the influence of anything but coffee... but I found it hilarious.

Was it silly? Sure. Was some of the humor juvenile? Of course. Is it Shakespeare? No.

But it was also a pretty tightly told story, with a lot of snappy dialogue and so many references and cameos I'm sure I'd have to see it a couple more times before I caught them all. Whether you like Seth Rogen or not as an actor, dude can write. And dude is willing to poke fun at himself, his friends, his lifestyle.

Highly recommend if you want a good laugh. My favorite actor send up was either Jonah Hill or Michael Cera. Both really let themselves be skewered in different ways and I found the film versions of them very funny. I guess the Michael Cera send up was a bit reminiscent of Neil Patrick Harris in the first Harold and Kumar movie... But it went a little further and was so, so, funny... Oh, and Danny McBride who I normally hate... His character version of himself was also very funny. So was James Franco's version of himself. And how obsessed he was with Rogen. Okay. Just thinking about this, I'm remembering how funny this was.

Overall: Had tears of laughter much of the time. The dialogue is surprisingly subtle and smart. Would see it again.

Second stop: Man of Steel.

I liked this movie, too. But wasn't blown away.

I found out this morning that my great friend Molly O'Keefe hated it, so I might challenge her to a cage match over at Storytelling Rules... But for now, things I liked about it were:
- image of Krypton, great worldbuilding
- Lois Lane wasn't just a damsel in distress, but a genuine heroine who wasn't TSTL and affected the outcome of the story
- the villain had strong motivation. It's been a long time since I saw the original Superman and I haven't read the comics, so maybe this motivation wasn't new... but I liked this villain. Michael Shannon is always strong and his motivation was too. He was trying to save his people, Superman was trying to save humans. That's some damn good conflict, IMHO.

Third stop: Before Midnight.

If you're not familiar with these movies, Richard Linklater made this quiet little indie film in 1994, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, about a young couple who meet on a train and decide to spend an evening/night walking around Vienna together. He's American and flying home from Vienna in the morning. She's French, and on her way home to Paris. It's called Before Sunrise and it's excellent if you haven't seen it. Very romantic and probably my favorite of the three.
Then about 9 years later, he made Before Sunset, which showed the pair 9 years later, wandering around Paris for a few hours. To say much more about that one, would be spoilerish. But like the first one, it's excellent. The dialogue and acting are actually pretty astounding in these films. And the chemistry between Hawke and Delpy is hot.Before Midnight is an end to the trilogy... and shows the pair as a married couple, 18 years after they first met on that train. Saying they're married is somewhat spoilerish for the first two films, but I don't think it really ruins anything. Things aren't perfect between the couple, and they spend a good chunk of the film fighting, but the dialogue and acting were once again great, and I loved the parts where they weren't fighting. This is the first film in the trilogy where we see them interacting with other characters, (rather than just themselves), and the dinner scene, with couples of different ages, in different stages of their relationships was probably my favorite part. The shots of the Greek Island they're on were wonderful too.

Then I went home and watched Mad Men and The Killing. (Forgot about the True Blood premiere...)

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Yes, my book with the business-like and/or kinky title (depending on your perspective) has been released into the wild!

Speaking of the title, I'm busy answering some FAQs for my soon to be revamped website and so I thought I might address the title one right here.

Q: The title for the second book in The Dust Chronicles is Compliance. What's that about?

A: To be honest, we struggled to come up with a great title for Book Two. In the world of the series, the defacto police are called Compliance Officers, or Comps. In the second book *minor spoiler alert* Glory is training to be a Compliance Officer so it seemed like an apt title.
Initially, Book Two was called Shredders. Shredders are the sadistic scab-covered monsters that exist in the world, but since they don't play a large part in the plot of Book Two (there will be more--lots more--about Shredders in Book Three) I didn't think that Shredders would properly represent the story, even though I thought it was an awesome title.

I also like the meaning of the word Compliance and how it fits with some of the themes of the book. i.e. How long will people continue to comply, when the rules and regulations are unreasonable? When do the ends justify the means? And, to risk getting spoilerish, can someone force compliance on others?

Haven Equals Safety. This slogan is emblazoned on the minds of every Haven employee. But for Glory, life inside Haven is anything but safe. Most of all, she must hide her Deviant gift--the ability to kill with her eyes--or face death.

Training to be a dreaded Compliance Officer, she secretly works undercover to save fellow Deviants, but when people she trusts turn against her and a powerful member of Management takes her under her wing, Glory questions everything she believes and can no longer tell her allies from her enemies.

In Canada, only the audio and kindle versions are on sale, but if you're in the US, or can order from the US store, amazon.com has the hardcover version for DEVIANTS on sale for less than $3.00!!!! Wow. What a bargoon.

And to celebrate the release, I'm running a Giveaway!!! Tell your friends. (Even if that might decrease your odds of winning, you'll win karma points, which is way better.)

In Canada, only the audio and kindle versions are on sale, but if you're in the US, or can order from the US store, amazon.com has the hardcover version for DEVIANTS on sale for less than $3.00!!!! Wow. What a bargoon.

To celebrate the release, I'm running a Giveaway!!! Tell your friends. (Even if that might decrease your odds of winning, you'll win karma points, which is way better.)

If you haven't read DEVIANTS yet, here are a few things you should know:

While the story does go over 3 books, each of them stands alone. So you can enjoy COMPLIANCE even if you haven't read DEVIANTS! (And then maybe you'll be curious enough to read DEVIANTS second to see how it all started.)

DEVIANTS is on a big-time sale right now at Amazon.com (kindle, hardcover and audio) and on Amazon.ca (kindle only on sale, last time I looked.) I'll put links below for your convenience.

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

To celebrate my cover reveal, I'm giving away 2 copies of DEVIANTS. Signed if you live in North America, unsigned if you don't. (Sorry... often mailing a book overseas costs $35-$40 and I just can't afford that. But I will send it to you from The Book Depository.)

I'm starting to get excited about this release... I can't believe it's May already!!!

Oh! And the Spanish version of DEVIANTS (LOS INDESEABLES) was recommended on what my publishers in Spain tell me is the most important cultural TV show in Spain! They made it sound like this was the US equivalent of being featured on Entertainment Tonight, or something. So, Yippee!

Here is the video. My book's mentioned at about minute 20:50 and it's easy to scroll ahead.